outtakes

A few photos from Crystal Crescent beach and my grandmother's farm in Saltsprings, Nova Scotia. All taken and edited on an iPhone 4S...pretty much the only camera I travel with these days! Thanks for looking!

shelburne farms, vermont

In the light of day, the fire pit that you sit around at American Flatbread still looks pretty great. And the farm cats are cute, too. After we had breakfast at the Lareau Farm Inn (cottage cheese pancakes with lemon honey butter) we drove to Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont. From what I could tell, Shelburne Farms is famous for it's cheese (I loved the cheddar spread) and the huge property is laced with beautiful walking trails. Camilla tells me that this is and always was a hobby farm, which perhaps partly explains the amazing barn that is now home to a small cadre of pettin' animals: goats, donkeys, and fancy chickens, included. My personal favourite was this badger-faced goat. If you can swing a visit to this farm I highly recommend you go. It is ridiculously beautiful and the barn itself is so much bigger and grander than these pictures can convey. It made me realize that there is this whole part of this continent that I know very little about and that has a rich history and amazing architectural traditions. I definitely want to spend more time exploring New England soon!

I'm already looking forward to my next trip, which will likely be back home to Calgary for Christmas. Jeff and I have a busy month ahead of us because we're moving (again!) and so I'm glad we took this time to chill out with friends and goats between the craziness of getting married and the annoyance of moving. Our move will be worth it, though! Lots more space and even a fireplace to call our own! Do you have any fall or winter vacations planned?

three generations

grandma

mom

grandma (note that calendar in the background!!!)

grandma and me

mom (bowl cut, so rad!), me (bday hat), sister (yellow dress, so cute!)

mom and me this spring

It's Mother's Day and I thought that I would share some vintage photos with you of my mom and her mom and also myself. I've talked lots of times about how proud I am of the accomplishments of my family members. My sister and I are the first generation on my mom's side to not live on the farm and the first kids to be born and grow up in the bustling city of Halifax! My dad's parents were also incredible people, and I'll share some photos of them soon. There was one picture in particular that I was looking for but couldn't find today. My mom is 25 years old and holding baby me. I saw that photo when I was 25 and was so struck with how much we look alike. I can see the resemblance in these photos, too. Note the birthday party shot. That's gotta be most of the moms in our neighbourhood! And that's my sister in the yellow dress, proving once again that she was the cutest kid in the freakin' world!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, including my own, of course!

nova scotia: rural outtakes

At the end of the school year last year I went back to Nova Scotia to visit my sister, brother-in-law, dad, grandma and the rest of my family. I had such a fabulous visit, the details of which will be revealed over at Yuppie Love on Saturday. I thought I'd share some outtakes of my photos here. These are the ones that I didn't include in my post on Kait's blog because her series is more city-oriented. My ninety-two year old grandmother lives on a farm in rural Nova Scotia and these are some of the photos that I took there last summer.

The house above is not the one my grandma lives in. It's one that we've always called "the other house". It was also a chicken coop at one point. My grandma has lived on this same farm for about ninety years. One of the most inspirational stories about her is that she finished high school in her 70s. Perhaps my mother will correct me on this detail, but she had made it all the way to grade eleven as a teenager, which was rare for girls of her generation, and then had to drop out. I think it is absolutely amazing that she went back fifty years later to get her diploma (in Nova Scotia that's pretty much always called your "grade twelve").

She's also been feeding the birds on this property for almost as long as she's lived there. As Jeff found out when we visited together a few years ago, there is a very specific way to go about feeding the birds. For example, he was asked to go clockwise around the circle in the driveway to feed the pigeons, not counterclockwise. They would hate that. This picture of one of the feeders I'm including for Danielle. It's great to visit my grandma's farm, you can birdwatch from the kitchen window. I also had to get a bluejay out of the screened-in porch when I was last there. That was a bit insane!

This is "Kitty". Dreamcat extraordinaire. Its tongue is sticking out because it has no teeth. When it wandered onto the farm a few years ago my grandma (ever the animal lover) took it to the vet to have it checked out and mentioned that it was a nice kitten. Well, though Kitty was small, the vet was quick to point out that this was no kitten. Estimated age of this cat: 78 human years. So cute.

The "new barn" above and the "old barn" below. "New" might be a misnomer. No idea when this barn was built. The old barn has always been off limits due to structural integrity issues. It looks like it conceals some amazing treasures, it may have been a house in a previous life, and I'm pretty sure it was dragged onto the property by members of my family that first moved here. I have dreams of doing something with some of the wood with its beautiful patina.

Below is "the black cat". Does this cat have a real name? I have no idea, though I think it's name may be "the black cat". I love this photo of it and the black cat is way softer than Kitty, though less likely to sit on your lap and drool. I hope you've enjoyed these images of the farm where I spent so much of my childhood. Take a look at some older photos from this little corner of the world here. Where did you spend childhood weekends?

dream cats

My grandmother lives on a farm in Nova Scotia. Her collection of living animals over the years has been eclectic, found somewhere nearby or on the farm as they nearly always are. In the days of the place being a poultry farm it was also home to a maple syrup-drinking horse with a mean streak and a swift bite. When I was younger, there were two cats named Samantha and Tabby that my brother and I would lock in our shared bedroom so they'd have to hang with us while we read comic books. There was also a dog named Rachel that we weren't supposed to touch. Then there was Jenny, a long-lived black lab and the perfect exuberant farm dog. Now there is the black cat, a few strays, a dog named April that was found at the roadside and has gained quite a bit of weight in its new home, and Kitty, an orange (or used-to-be orange) cat.

Kitty has no teeth (or maybe one tooth?) and can't hold her tongue in her mouth. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but she's also really, really small. My grandmother told me that she is a miniature cat and asked me if I've ever heard of that before. Now I have. Regardless of the drool, dust, and dander that makes Kitty who she is I've always thought she's pretty special. I'm not even sure that it's a girl. A photo I took this spring of Kitty has been featured on dreamcats. Check it out!